ENHANCING NATIONAL SECURITY WITH FOCUS ON CHALLENGES OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

87 Journal of Science and Science Education, Ondo Journal of Science and Science Education, Ondo Vol. 4(1), pp. 87 92, 25 December, 2013 Available online at http://www.josseo.org ISSN 2013 ENHANCING NATIONAL SECURITY WITH FOCUS ON CHALLENGES OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT NNACHI, AMA N. Department of Social Studies, Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo E-mail: nnachiaman@yahoo.com 08038981681, 07033387049 NWIGWE, ELIAS N.Ph.D Department of Political Science, Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo Rev. Ukoma, A. N. Ph.D Department of Religion and Philosophy, EBSU, Abakaliki Abstract: Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa. The development of any nation is a function of how well her citizens are empowered. The youths, being the pillar for future development need to be empowered since they are endowed with essentials necessary for the sustenance of economic growth of the nation. If youths are not empowered, they create a threat to national security as we have witnessed recently in the Niger Delta militancy, Boko Haram bombing among others. It is within this context that this paper took a look into the concept of youth empowerment. The paper identified the different ways youths can be empowered, benefits derivable from youth empowerment and recommendations were proffered on youth empowerment. Key words: Youth, Empowerment, National security. Introduction Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa. She is blessed with abundant human and natural resources spread throughout the country. Despite the fact that the nations is endowed with these resources, Nigeria is still struggling to be developed and be a power to be reckoned within the community of nations. The problem of the continuous increase in poverty, armed robbery, militancy in the Niger Delta region and Boko Haram disturbances in the Northern region may not be unconnected to the fact that majority of Nigeria youths are not empowered to contribute to national development. Their belief of the youths is that the nation has failed them and therefore, they are paying back to the country what they felt was given to them. Unfortunately, most of our tertiary institutions turn out graduates on yearly basis without a corresponding job creation to take care of them. Worst still, the type of education the youths receive is not enough to make them self-reliance and become employers of labour than seeking for white colar job that are not sufficient or obtainable. Therefore, if the teeming populations of these youths are not employed, our match towards being one of the leading 20 nations of the world by 2020 will be a mirage. This is because the development of any nation must first commence with the development of the citizen. Three years to the deadline of the United National Millennium Development goals (MDGS), the socio-economic outlook of Nigeria has remained gloomy. How can Nigeria s army of jobless and restless youths be transformed into a productive industrial army. A veritable means of tackling Nigeria s present security challenges lies in job creation and the expansion

88 Journal of Science and Science Education, Ondo of opportunities for entrepreneurial wealth creation. The current waves of social tension and security in the country has never been like this even during the time of military era. This perhaps is as a result of massive wealth acquisition by the political class without taking recourse to the poor situation of the general public. The only quick way to survive in this scramble was in crimes and violence. Inadvertently, armed robbery, assassination, kidnapping, unauthorized militia and terrorism became tools or means of livelihood for jobless youths. Now, bombings and suicide attacks which were foreign to our land have become the way of life especially in the Northern and Niger Delta parts of the country. The figures from the National Bureau of Statistics and representing key indications of socio-economic growth and development are over dampening. It reveals that unemployment level in the first quarter of the year 2012 rose sharply, with the national unemployment level standing at 23.9 while Rural and Urban were at about 25.6% and 17.1% respectively (Oguntuase, 2012). The rates of unemployment among the males and females between the ages of 17-45 stood at 23.5% and 24.3% respectively. No improvements of these figures were recorded in the second and third quarters of the year (Office of Statistics General of the Federation, 2012). It is against this background that this paper examines what it means to empower the youth? ; different ways of empowering the youth and useful recommendations that will help to reduce, if not eliminate national security threats in Nigeria were made. Youth Empowerment It is pertinent to define who a youth is though there seems no universal definition of who a youth is as the term is used differently by individuals, governments and non-governmental organizations. However, the United Nations and Common Wealth of Nations have come up with specific age categories to define a youth. Perhaps that informed Echebiri (2005) in Nnachi (2012:2) to indicate that: The United Nations uses age category 15-24 years to define a youth while the common wealth uses the age category of 15-29. Most countries have either adopted the UN or common wealth definition. However, in Nigeria, the range is 15-36 years has been taken to be the youth category. In view of this, one can then say that, youth refers to young people within the age bracket of 15-36 years. Empowerment on the other hand implies giving someone the enabling environment to control the situations of his/her life. If we marry these two key words, it means that the situation of enabling the young people or youths within the age bracket of 15-36 years to take full charge of their life situations. Strategies for Empowering the Youths There are so many strategies that can be adopted for youths empowerment. Some of them are hereby discussed. 1. Education Education is the key to human empowerment. The right knowledge, appropriate skills, self-confidence and patriotism that are necessary for participation in development activities are received through education. Education helps one to develop mentally, physically, morally, politically and socially so as to be equipped for proper functioning in the environment an individual finds himself/herself. The National Policy on Education (2004:4) states that education in Nigeria is an instrument for-excellence for effecting national development. However, the Nigeria education system is not structured in such a way as to meet up with needed development. It is as a result of this that graduates of Nigeria tertiary institutions are ill-equipped to contribute to national development. Therefore, our education system must be re-structured to meet up with the national demand of employment.

89 Nnachi, Ama N.; Nwigwe, Elias N.& Ukoma, A.N. 2. Promoting Private Enterprises The private sector is the engine room for economic growth. It is therefore important that government should make some fundamental changes in the economic sector so as to create enabling environment in which established business could thrive. If government creates micro economic frameworks which will facilitate true deregulation and liberalization, foreign investment would be attracted and youths would be empowered through productive employment. 3. Creating Affordable Housing One of the strategies for empowering the youths is by providing adequate housing. The youths need more houses so as to take them out of the street and under the bridge. The government should remove all administrative bottlenecks that hinder private developers from acquiring land and building on them. The use of local building materials should be encouraged and youths should be trained in new architectural designing. By this means, youths would be employed and empowered. 4. Creating Affordable Jobs In Nigeria, the rate of urbanization is so high and manufacturing sector is stagnant. Therefore there is imbalance between the demand for labour and its supply. Government should therefore make policies that will open up the rural areas thereby creating new jobs driven by the private sector with local government (NEEDS, 2004). 5. Strengthening the Skill Base The future of Nigeria society depends on the youths who are well prepared and are ready to take their place in the scheme of things in the nearest future. The government should implement the Universal Basic Education Law and increase teachers and trainees. The government must, as a matter of urgency fund courses that build vocational and entrepreneurial skills and improve training technology at all levels of the education system in Nigeria (Nwankwo 1981:102). 6. Promoting Peace and Security To promote peace and security among youths, the state action plan will include among other things, reforming the security sector, reorientating the Police Officers so as to offer more youths friendly service establishing an early warning and response system that will detect conflicts, providing fair allocation of revenues and responsibilities between state and local government and mainstreaming conflicts prevention by establishing structures and processes that promote a peaceful culture (NEEDS, 2005). It no gainsaying that there must be existence of peace for any country to flourish. There are many crises in some countries today because the youths were not empowered. A notable example in African is Nigeria where many youths are not empowered through employment and this happens to be one of the major causes of insecurity in Nigeria. When jobs are created for them, there will be peace and the life of the citizens spared. 7. Promoting Industries One of the strategies for youths empowerment is the development of the industrial sectors, by relying more on local resources and less on imports. These industries would be guided by local research and development strategy that seek to promote science and technology based on small and medium scale enterprise (Ijere, 1990). The major thrust of the policy is that the state should stop selling the natural resources in crude form. The crude should be processed within the state, more jobs would be created for the teaming population of the youths and there will be more export earnings for this generation. 8. Improving Agriculture Agriculture is the largest source of wealth after mineral resources though not fully exploited. The promotion of agricultural activities is the major route way to youth empowerment. Improved high yielding crop varieties, animals, training and other inputs will help in making the sector more viable for the employment of youths. Credit facilities, storage facilities and increased capacity for food reserve programs should be made available. Problems Militating Against Youths Empowerment The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS,2004) had

90 Journal of Science and Science Education, Ondo outlined five major problems militating against youths empowerment as follows: 1. Social Exclusion Youth are most often excluded in social and political areas. These have resulted in youth poverty with the attendant security implications. It is therefore necessary to include the youth in job creation, housing, health care and in promoting peace and security. 2. Non-creation of an Environment in which Business will thrive Opportunities are not created for private sectors to thrive to create opportunity for employment and wealth to empower the youths to take advantage of these opportunity to create a system of incentive that reviewed hard work and stop corruption. 3. Non-Strengthening of the Skill Base The government does not ensure that more funds be spent on producing courses that build vocational and entrepreneurial skills to improve the training and exposure of the youths to information and communication technology at all level in promoting peace and security. The state action plan do not include among other things reforming the security sectors, reorienting police officers to offer youths friendly services early warning and response system that will detect conflict. 4. The government has not properly reviewed health care services in order to design a strong state health system that can deliver effective, good quality and affordable services to the youth. 5. Poor strategies for proper stabilizing and rationalizing of public spending The government proposal of strategies to stabilize and rationalize public spending seems improper. It decreases domestic savings and private investment and do not address the problem of public debt. It does not implement tax reform to increase revenue nor enact a fiscal responsibility packs to ensure coordination of its expenditures across all tiers of government. The government does not aim at recapturing its works to make it smarter, stronger, more skilled and efficient. These things transform the government to a haven of corruption, to an institution that spans underdevelopment and do not leave the youth for anything. Benefits Derivable from Youths Empowerment Youthful age is a period of stress and storm. It is a period where one is full of life and initiatives. It is a decisive period because it is a time of huge physical, Psychological, economic and social changes. At this stage, actions that can promote success or failures later in life are displaced. It is a very busy periods as most people know the direction of their life. Youth empowerment is beneficial because it would help to reduce poverty. It is on this note that the International Labour Organization (2004) states that getting the right foothold in the labour market is therefore critical not only for success at work but also personal lives of individual, their families and their countries. Moreover, UNO (2005:24) noted that Economics can be strengthened when people have decent jobs. They have more to spend as consumers, more to invest as savers and more to contribute as tax payers. A productive and motivated workforce is an asset to companies that benefit from the creative innovation of the youth. This enhances equitable distribution of wealth. Where there is no job to do and no hope for the future, youths migrate out of an area. The brain drain of education elites in the society would be reduced by youth empowerment Youths can play a vital role in preventing conflict and crimes, promoting political stability and security at national, regional and international levels. When youths are not empowered it could lead to human trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping among other things. These social vices destroy infrastructural facilities, breakdown of families social structures and institutions and undermine government capacity to fulfill basic responsibilities (Igwe and Nnachi, 2009). Conclusion The development of any nation is a function of how well her citizens are empowered. This write up has considered youth as the vanguard

91 Nnachi, Ama N.; Nwigwe, Elias N.& Ukoma, A.N. for future development of this nation. Since Nigrian youths have all it takes to make the country better; they need to be empowered through careful and systematic strategies, involving them in every step; through purposeful education, skill acquisition and training among others. When youths are not empowered, they create a threat to national security as Nigeria is witnessing presently in the cases of Niger Delta militancy and Boko Haram bombing among others. If Nigeria must return to a state of normalcy which the nation once enjoyed, the security challenges confronting the nation at the moment must be dealt with. There is the need therefore, to rescue always those idle hands from the devils workshop. The immediate workable option is youth empowerment and a conducive environment for entrepreneurship development. Recommendations Based on the discourse of this write up the following recommendations are made: 1. Government and the organized private sector should further intensify their collaborative efforts to engender infrastructural development in the economy as this is the basis for all human and economic empowerment schemes. If power generation and distribution is increased, small scale enterprises can thrive. 2. Infrastructure for the harnessing of the gas flared during petroleum production should be developed. This will go along way not only to make our environment save but create jobs for the youths. 3. Government and the private sector should commence Venture Capital Scheme (VCS) to assist young school leavers and artisans, who may wish to engage in trading and local manufacturing to develop their entrepreneurial talent with start-up capital than looking for paid jobs. 4. Corporate organizations should redefine their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) roles in line with the present national needs. Activities that are geared towards bringing out the best innate abilities of the youths should be the core CSR policy of business organizations. 5. The Latent energies of the youth spent in violence should be rechanneled into opportunities that are abounding in entertainment and sports industries. 6. The Nigeria content Act of 2010 must be implemented in all oil and gas sectors of the economy. This will help the Nation to achieve her vision 2020:20 and create employment opportunities that will take most of the youths out of the streets. 7. Agriculture is another sector that could be employed to engage a greater number of youths. It is therefore necessary that agriculture be made attractive through the provision of incentives for young graduates who may wish to go into farming. As we have Education Trust Fund, we should have Agriculture Trust Fund to take care of our agricultural needs. 8. The rural dwellers should be integrated into the development plans of the nation to avoid rural - urban drift. 9. It is hereby recommended that graduates of university should have monthly up- keep in the form of social security till one secures a job. 10. Retirement age of workers must be strictly followed to avoid age fortification. Entitlement benefits of retired workers should be paid as when due so that people would be willing to retire and give room for the youth to participate in National Development. 11. There is need to review the curriculum of our education system to inculcate functional and entrepreneurship skill in the graduates, so as to make them employers of labour instead of employees.

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